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Pilot
Pilot is the first episode of Glee's first season and the first episode overall. It premiered on May 19, 2009. Optimistic high school teacher Will Schuester tries to refuel his own passion for the performing arts while reinventing McKinley High School's Glee Club and challenging a group of outcasts to realize their star potential. Going up against McKinley's cruel high school caste system and facing harsh criticism from everyone around him, Will is determined to prove them all wrong. This episode introduces major plot lines such as: Will's motivation to build the New Directions, Rachel and Finn's relationship, choosing between Football/Cheerios and Glee Club, Sue's motivation to tear the Glee Club apart, and Quinn desperately trying to get Finn back while trying to express her feelings for Alex. Plot The McKinley High Cheerios are practicing a difficult routine by their relentless cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester. Spanish teacher Will Schuester parks his car, which has a loose exhaust pipe, and then walks passed several members of the football team, including Finn Hudson and Noah "Puck" Puckerman, surrounding flamboyant student Kurt Hummel by the dumpster before Alex shows up to stop them. Alex warns them if they do anything like that to Kurt, he'd break every bone in their body. As he leaves, the jocks decided to take Alex's warning and not throw Kurt in the dumpster. Will gazes at the school trophy case where a tribute plaque to the late Glee Club coach Lillian Adler reads, "By its very definition, Glee is about opening yourself up to joy." Later, Will is teaching verbs with his Spanish class, where a bored Finn is struggling to concentrate. Current Glee Club coach, Sandy Ryerson, and his lead soloist, Hank Saunders, are practicing Where Is Love,''together in the choir room, where Sandy proceeds to touch Hank inappropriately on the stomach as a jealous Rachel Berry watches from outside the door. In the teacher's lounge, Will asks his co-worker, and McKinley High football coach, Ken Tanaka where the coffee pot is. Ken remarks that Principal Figgins got rid of it due to budget cuts and suggest they strike because of it. Sue enters the room with lattés for the two just as guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury enters the room with her lunch, which is stored in tupperware, and she also uses disposable gloves and wet naps to clean the table she eats at, implying that she is a perfectionist and mysophobic. Emma politely greets Ken and Will, with Ken eyeing her as she eyes Will, both clearly interested. Emma asks why Sue bought lattés, to which Sue remarks that she felt bad that Figgins cut the coffee budget to pay for a nutritionist for the Cheerios which leads to small banter between the two. Ken tries to flirt with Emma, who is uninterested, and Emma eventually brings up that Sandy got fired. Will then asks who will take over Glee Club. Emma leaves for her session with Alex. While Alex is training in the locker room, Emma asks to see him. Reluctant, Alex leaves for his aunt's office. Inside her office, Emma discusses Alex's future after high school. He reveals that his future is hopefully within Quinn as he has feelings for her. This made Emma realize Quinn's the one for Alex, knowing that nephew really likes the head cheerleader. Will meets Principal Figgins in his office and asks to take over Glee Club, but Figgins is cynical. Figgins mentions that it'll take $60 a month to keep the program, and that if Will wants school support, then the Glee Club would have to bring in the same kind of money that the Cheerios bring in. While sleeping with his wife, Terri, Will tries to think of a way to hide the money from Terri while subsequently getting the kids motivated to join. During his thought process, he jolts up after coming up with a name for the club: New Directions. At a billboard with a sign-up sheet for the Glee Club, various students secretly apply: Mercedes Jones, a diva-ish student, sings a powerful rendition of Aretha Franklin's ''Respect; Kurt Hummel auditions with Mr. Cellophane from the Broadway musical, Chicago during which he hits an impressive high note (D5); Tina Cohen-Chang, a shy Asian-American student, and wheelchair-bound student Artie Abrams sign up and Tina comically auditions with Katy Perry's recent hit I Kissed a Girl; and finally, talented Rachel Berry auditions with a moving version of On My Own from Les Misérables. During a voiceover, Rachel mentions that she signs her name with a gold star because it is a metaphor of her being a star. After she signs up, she is hit in the face with a slushie by Puck. Rachel also reveals that she was the one who reported Sandy to Principal Figgins about touching Hank, to which she dramatically cried to Figgins about how wrong it was. However, Rachel smirks suspiciously after this admission but asserts that she didn't do it because Sandy gave Hank the solo she felt she deserved. Rachel reveals that she has two gay fathers via surrogacy and mentions that she was given dance and vocal lessons since her early childhood to give her a competitive edge. She reveals that posts a MySpace video every day to keep her talent alive and growing, but her videos are viewed by the Cheerio squad where the head cheerleader, Quinn Fabray, leaves cruel messages to her except the few with Alex. After the audition, Rachel confidently asks when they start rehearsals. During rehearsals, the New Directions put on a disastrous performance of Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat . ''Rachel is upset that Will has cast Artie as the lead, especially since Artie is in a wheelchair. After Artie defends Will's choice by saying that he chose irony to enhance the performance, Rachel storms out of the choir room, claiming that "there is nothing ironic about show choir.". At a home goods store called Sheets-N-Things, Terri is teaching an incompetent employee how to fold a sheet, to which he says he can't do it because he's dyslexic. Will drops by with Terri's lunch to which Terri nags that Will had put mayonnaise in her sandwich and mentions that if her diabetes returns then she would be unable to get pregnant. Will then reveals to her that he is going to be running detention and that he'd be home late, which displeases Terri. Will then runs into Sandy Ryerson in the store who tells him that he is now a drug dealer and offers to let Will join in, who declines but not before Sandy gives him a pack of medical marijuana in his shirt for free. Will seeks out advice from Emma about how to get more kids to join Glee Club, to which she mentions that they would follow the popular crowd including her own nephew. So, Will asks Sue and Ken to get some of the Cheerios and football players to join but is shot down by Sue and is disappointed to learn that the football team vandalized his sign-up sheet. Will is just about to give up until he hears a student sing ''Can't Fight This Feeling in the showers. It is revealed to be Finn Hudson. Will is mesmerized by the boy's talent and decides to do something rash. Quinn approaches Alex, asking him to a movie over the weekend, but Rachel listens in and isn't happy. He accepts her offer and walks away before she gives him a kiss on the cheek. Will brings Finn into his office and accuses him of possessing marijuana that Will claims to have found via a bi-weekly afternoon locker check. Finn denies that it's his, but Will counters that just being in possession of it is a felony. Will states that Finn will get kicked out school and his football scholarship. Finn begs him to not tell his mother and Will reveals that he sees a lot of himself in Finn and mentions that he knows what it's like to struggle with life choices and expected more out of him. Will then asks Alex to come into his office and later dicusses about Glee club, but Alex doesn't seem interested, having already talked to Emma, his aunt. In a voiceover, Finn reveals that Will's words really got to him and talks about his past. In a flashback, Finn reveals that his father died at a young age and that his mother, Carole, struggled with being a single parent. He mentions that she was her happiest when they splurged to buy Emerald Dreams, an industry that colors her yard to look green. The worker, Darren, got Finn into singing as they sing along to Journey's Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' ''. Darren and Carol eventually start dating but things end on a sour note when Darren runs off with a beautiful blonde, leaving Carol devastated. Back to the present, Will tricks Finn and Alex into joining the Glee Club by giving him the option to attend six weeks of detention or join New Directions. Finn chooses to join, but Alex refuses to do so once again. The New Directions perform ''You're the One That I Want together, to which a flirtatious Rachel tries to woo Finn during their duet. Mercedes breaks up the duo and states that she is not okay with singing back-up as she is "Beyoncé, not Kelly Rowland." Will tells her that it's just one song and that there will be others, which sates Mercedes who then compliments that Finn is good, but he better "bring it." At their apartment, Will and Terri are doing a puzzle together in Terri's craft room and Will tells her that the New Directions are working hard and was thinking about taking them on a field trip to Carmel High, whose Glee Club is the team to beat at Regionals and asks Terri to come chaperone with him, who declines. This eventually leads to an argument about Will's future and Will claims that he does not want to be an accountant and that his passion is teaching. Later, Will puts up sign-up sheet in the teacher's lounge for chaperones to which an eager Emma quickly signs up for. High school bully Puck overhears Ken chewing out Finn for missing practice Saturday to go on Will's field trip to Carmel High and asks him what it was about. Finn lies and says that he has to help his mom around the house because she had her prostate removed. Despite the fact that women do not have prostates, Puck believes the story and leaves it at that. On the field trip to Carmel High, Rachel compliments Alex for his impressive 79-0 winning streak, but she like Emma doesn't want him to keep beating people up all his life. Of course, Alex doesn't listen to Rachel and tells her if she was his friend she would support him. Will, Emma, and the New Directions all sit down in the school's auditorium where Will confidently states that Vocal Adrenaline, the Glee Club's rivals and last year's winner at Nationals, don't have the talent the New Directions have. They watch Vocal Adrenaline perform an impressive rendition of Amy Winehouse's Rehab that leaves the New Directions dumbfounded with Tina stating that they are "d-d-doomed." Eventually, in the crowd Rachel looks over at Alex and gives out a bright smile. At school, Finn is surrounded by his football teammates where Puck tells him he looked online to learn that women actually don't have prostates. Discovered, Finn admits the lie and is paintballed by the team. Will comes home to find Terri holding two glasses of champagne with a banner that reads "Congratulations" hung up. Terri then reveals that she's pregnant and Will is left ecstatic. Later, in the next scene, Alex is beating his opponent down and wins 80-0 after a really violent roundhouse kick, just as Emma, Will and Rachel look on shocked. Following the fight, Alex extended his streak to 80-0, ending the episode.